The Steadfast Tin Soldier
by Missie2
Summary: Inspired by a segment from Fantasia 2000. 3+4 shounen ai with Trowa as the tin soldier and Quatre as the dancing doll...
1. Default Chapter

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Hi everybody! I'm working on the last Chapter of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, but until I'm finished, here's a oneshot. Inspired by a segment from Fantasia 2000 to the tune of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2. No Warnings, except for AU and mild shounen ai. I don't own Gundam Wing or Fantasia, except on video.

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London, 1910.

Six-year-old Relena Peacecraft ran down the stairs two at a time to greet her older brother, Milliardo, and receive her latest gift from overseas. Milliardo was a member of the Foreign Legion and had traveled the world, always returning with strange, exotic toys for the sister he doted on. Her room was filled with real fur teddy bears from Russia, porcelain dolls from France and Italy, game sets from India and even a strange German Jack-In-The-Box, the thirteenth in a limited edition set.

Relena's pride and joy, however, was a tiny china dancing doll on a glass pedestal from the Far East. Many girls of her age, including her best friend Dorothy, had a doll that spun on a pedestal to a ballet tune like from The Nutcracker, dressed in a miniature cotton tutu with painted on slippers. Relena's doll was unique, first of all being a young male dancer, which in itself was a rarity. He was dressed in a handmade silk costume from a modern ballet called _Firebird _by Igor Stravinsky, which composed mostly of a calf-length white jacket embroidered with red feathers, sheer muslin stockings and real silk Pointe slippers. His porcelain feet, always on Pointe, fitted into a small groove in the pedestal that rotated when the mechanism played the first few bars of the ballet. His joints could be moved and locked into different positions, even his fingers, and he had a small internal mechanism that allowed individually painted blue prism-like eyes to open under long, fluted lashes. Even the doll's blonde hair was made from some soft, unknown material. This doll was placed prominently in the center of the little girl's bedroom.

As Relena neared the bottom of the staircase she was suddenly hoisted into her brother's strong arms. After he set her down, she held out her hand to receive her gift. Milliardo laughingly chided her for being cheeky and handed her an ornately carved box, telling her that it was a collection of soldier dolls from all over the world. Relena excitedly opened the box and examined each of the four hand-made soldiers meticulously.

The first was made of durable steel, hand painted with a slight scowl and jagged edges for dark brown hair. As it turned out he had been a melted down knife from Japan, and was dressed in a Japanese military uniform. His scowl fascinated Relena and he immediately became her favorite. The second was made of smooth polished wood, carved by an American sailor and painted with a dark blue, nearly black, navel uniform. An intricate braid trailed down his back, and he had large, vivid purple eyes and a perpetual goofy grin. The girl didn't like him as much as she did the first. The third was hand crafted porcelain from China, painted with a deep caramel tan, slanted black eyes, smooth black hair in a short ponytail and a deeper scowl than the first. He was dressed in a Chinese samurai suit.

The last soldier, it seemed to Relena, was a disappointment. He was made of tarnished tin that turned his hair, in a strangely banged style, a rusted reddish brown and his copper eyes a bright shade of green. He was taller than the others, and it seemed that his measurements were inaccurate, because his advance in height could be traced to the fact that he was missing a leg. If one ignored all of this, he was a handsome doll, immaculately dressed in a green French uniform that matched his eyes. But Relena was used to perfection, and muttered about his appearance.

She placed her new dolls in her bedroom, then picked up a few choice toys and went to Dorothy's house. At six-o clock, the Swiss cuckoo clock chimed and breathed life into the little girl's toys. Dolls stretched and straightened their clothes, teddies began to chat in an animated fashion, the rocking horse shook dust from his smooth wooden surface, the Jack-In-The-Box yawned and stared towards the center of the room where the dancing doll had removed his tiny china feet from the pedestal and was pirouetting across the glass surface. 

The Jack-In-The-Box, known as Treize for the number thirteen carved on the side of his box, had been admiring the dancer for some time and was finally able to get close enough to introduce himself. Relena had set him on top of her table last night after she had finished playing with him. After smoothing down his red felt hair and forked eyebrows, he dragged the box a little closer with his arms and cleared his throat. The china doll stopped dancing to look up at him, but held an Arabesque position. Treize grinned and gave a strange little bow.

" Good day, my dear. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Treize."

He held out his large wooden hand to the doll, but the blonde gave a small wave, indicating that he couldn't make a move unless it was a ballet position.

" And what, may I ask, is your name?"

" Quatre."

" Very nice. Why don't you dance a little closer to me?"

He gave a smile he envisioned as charming, but it was actually just lecherous. Quatre offered him an apologetic smile.

" I'm sorry, but I have to get back to my pedestal. It was nice meeting you."

Annoyed, the Jack-In-The-Box made to grab the china doll, but Quatre quickly danced out of his way and fixed his toes of his right foot back into the pedestal. He raised the other foot in an Arabesque, hiding it behind a fold of his costume and held the position to wait for Relena's return.

Meanwhile, the new soldiers jumped to attention and assumed a formation behind their leader, the Japanese soldier. They initiated a march across the stack of books they had been placed on to take in their new surroundings, with the leader first, the samurai second, the American third and the tin soldier lagging behind because of his missing leg. After a few minutes, the American soldier accidentally tripped over his own two feet and knocked over the first two. They turned to reprimand him, but he also turned to lay an accusing, though guilty, eye on the French soldier. The blame was placed on the last soldier, and he was ordered to return to the box.

Hopping back, the tin soldier glanced quickly around the bedroom until he finally saw the china dancing doll on the table, balancing effortlessly on one leg. A feeling of elation spread over him, thinking that he had found someone like him, and attractive to boot. He hopped over to the foot of the table and shimmied up the seam of a nearby dollhouse, then swung himself onto the surface of the table.

Quatre turned his enormous blue glass eyes to the figure in front of him, but held his position. Trowa found himself searching for words, but he had never been much of a talker so words failed him. Finally, he settled on plucking a small paper rose from a miniature vase nearby, and awkwardly held it out towards the china doll.

Surprised but charmed, Quatre smiled shyly at the tin soldier, who smiled back. He then brought his foot down from behind his costume and tried to remove the other from the groove in the pedestal. The tin soldier stared in shock at the dainty porcelain appendage before his features clouded over in disappointment and he turned to leave. Quatre only now noticed his missing leg and quickly figured out what was wrong. He reached out to take the flower from the tin soldier, who turned around again in surprise. He watched the china doll attach the rose to the waist ribbon of his costume, then hold out his hand to him.

" I'm Quatre. You're one of Relena's new toy soldiers, right?"

The tin soldier smiled and placed a kiss on the offered hand, slightly embarrassed.

" Yes. My name is Trowa."

" I'm very pleased to meet you, Trowa."

A crash from beside them caused both to look up. Treize had watched this little exchange with growing fury, but seeing Trowa kiss Quatre's hand made him snap. He grabbed the tin soldier and looked set to throw him into the fireplace across the room, but Quatre heaved the nearby vase of paper flowers at him, startling the Jack-In-The-Box and causing him to drop Trowa onto the windowsill. Enraged, Treize pushed the heavy glass pedestal, with Quatre still attached, off of the table and it crashed loudly on the floor, but didn't break. Trowa looked frantically over the edge of the windowsill for a glimpse of the china doll, and failed to see Treize swing the open window towards him. The heavy wooden frame knocked him out of the window and into the gutter, where he was carried away by a rush of rainwater.

Before he was swept away, Trowa saw Relena return home. Inside her bedroom, the clock chimed seven and everything was still once more.


	2. Chapter 2

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Chapter 2.

Okay , I'm sorry if there was a little confusion about this fic. I called it a one shot, and it was meant to be a oneshot, but I ran out of time writing it and had to make two chapters. Usual warnings, I don't own them, blah, blah blah.

" MILLIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Milliardo ran into his sister's room with a very expensive, very heavy hand carved baseball bat, convinced that his sister was in some sort of mortal danger. He was relieved and a little irate to find that Relena was the only one in her bedroom, sniffling loudly.

" What? What's the matter?"

" M-m-my dolly's gone!"

" Your dolly? Which one?"

" M-m-my dancing dolly! Dorothy stoled it!"

" You just got back from Dorothy's. Did you bring it with you?"

" N-no."

" Then how do you know she took it?"

" 'COS DOROTHY STOLED MY DOLLY!!!"

" Okay, okay, calm down. You probably just misplaced it. I'll help you look."

" She stoled my French soldier too."

" We'll look for that one too."

" She can keep that one. BUT I WANT MY DANCING DOLLY!"

" What's that?"

A glimpse of something shiny caught Milliardo's eye, and he bent down to retrieve it. The blonde dancer was still attached to the pedestal, but the foot that wasn't in the fitted groove had broken off and was lying a few inches away. Relena started crying again when she saw it.

" HE'S BROKEN! DOROTHY BROKED MY DANCING DOLLY AND STOLED MY FRENCH SOLDIER!"

" Calm down. I'll fix him. Sheesh…"

After about an hour, Quatre was returned to the top of Relena's table, beside the Jack-In-The-Box. He was balanced on both feet inside the groove that had been widened by Milliardo, so that the glue keeping his foot on his ankle could set properly. Relena seemed satisfied with her brother's handiwork.

" Now, will we look for the soldier?"

" Nope. I got my dancing dolly back, Dorothy can have the other one."

Meanwhile, Trowa was bobbing along helplessly with the floodwater, watching cockroaches and rats scurry across the walls of the sewer. The red eyes of the rats regarded him with vague interest, and he was alarmed when several jumped into the water to catch him and discover whether he was edible or not. The long claws of a large male grasped him and hauled him out of the water. He closed his eyes and awaited the inevitable, with his last thoughts of the blonde dancing doll that had captured his heart.

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" I miss you already, Quatre."

A jolt forced his eyes open and he discovered himself flying through the air as one rat knocked him out of the other's grasp. He fell through the sewerage grating, past pipes and weeds and docks into a huge river. He plummeted to the bottom, only to find himself inside the stomach of a large rainbow trout before he could hit the depth.

Relena left for Dorothy's house at two-o clock to confront her over her other missing doll, and life surged through the bedroom. Toys moaned and stretched, the rocking horse threw a teddy off of his back, dolls made the beds of the dollhouse, the soldier dolls looked around for their missing companion, Treize watched Quatre try to pull his feet out of the pedestal where they had been wedged rather awkwardly. Treize smiled at the doll, who ignored him.

" Do forgive me, my dear. I really didn't mean to push you over like that. A simple accident, that's all."

Quatre looked at the empty compartment of the soldier doll's box.

" Where's Trowa?"

" The cripple? I'm afraid he took a rather clumsy fall out of a window. Terrible, really."

Quatre scowled angrily and turned away from him. Treize was about to make a grab at him when Relena entered, angry because Dorothy had called her a liar and a poop-head.

The rainbow trout's stomach was acting up, and he was swallowing seaweed in an attempt to stop whatever it was from moving around. He was so busy doing this that he failed to notice the fisherman's boat until the net dragged him up out of the water.

Hours later, a servant for a rich household bought the trout from the salesman, claiming that she had a very special dinner to prepare for her Master, who had been abroad.

At six o clock, Relena Peacecraft stared in disgust at the small piece of fish on her plate.

" This smells like it came from a sewer."

" Relena, be quiet and eat the stupid fish, okay?"

She poked at it with her fork and was surprised to find that it went less than an inch inside before it hit something hard. Now intrigued, she carefully dissected the fish with her knife and fork…

… and uncovered her tin soldier!

" Milliardo, look what I got!"

" Is that your missing toy? You must have left it near the cooking stuff. I guess Dorothy didn't steal it."

" She's still a poop-head."

" Go put it in your room so I can eat fish in peace, okay?"

" Okay."

Soon the tin soldier was back in his original place, eagerly awaiting reconciliation with his dancing doll.

As soon as Relena left and the clock struck seven, the room lit up with life again. The three soldiers were amazed to find Trowa there, as if he'd never left.

" Hey, Tro! Where'd you go, man? You stink to high heaven!"

" Did that Onna lend you to one of her Onna friends or something?"

" Hn?"

Trowa was about to answer them when he caught sight of Treize pulling Quatre out of the pedestal roughly. He leaped out of his box and hopped over to the table as fast as he could, cursing his one leg the whole way. Thanks to some acrobatic skill he had attained to make up for his missing appendage, he flung himself onto the table, startling Treize into dropping the blonde doll. Angrily, the Jack-In-The-Box dragged himself towards Trowa and prepred to shove him into the fire.

Suddenly, Trowa brought up his single leg and threw the box over his head into the eagerly awaiting embers. Treize exploded in a spark of red and orange. Trowa flipped himself back onto one leg, while Quatre, free from the stupid pedestal, danced over to hug him. Then the room froze as Relena came in.

" I promised Dorothy she could have my Jack-In-The-Box if she stopped calling me a poop head and I… Where is my Jack-In-The-Box?"

Milliardo noticed the large pile of ashes and had to quickly think of something to prevent his sister's upcoming tantrum.

" You already gave it to Dorothy."

" I did? When?"

" Yesterday."

" I didn't see it at her house."

" Maybe she lost it."

" Okay. What's my dancing dolly doing with my soldier dolly? He should be on his pedestal."

" Leave them like that. It's kinda cute. I didn't like the pedestal anyway."

That ending was pretty weird. Oh well, sue me. On second thought, don't.


End file.
